Rifle and handgun cartridges are shaped to be fired from a firearm that has a specific caliber. Because of this, the shape of the cartridges do not vary by manufacturer; instead, cartridges that are intended to be used with a specific caliber handgun generally look exactly the same regardless of the manufacturer. Cartridge manufacturers often remedy this by stamping their names onto the bottom of the cartridge case to allow users to distinguish one brand from another.
Aside from the manufacturer, a user may wish to identify ammunition according to other categories such as, for example, training rounds, live rounds, or caliber among others. The conventional approaches to ammunition identification are to either etch a mark into the exterior of the bullet or to “paint the tip” of the bullet using paint or another suitable marking material. Unfortunately, these techniques suffer from one or more of the following drawbacks: poor adherence of marking material to the bullet, inconsistent adherence of the marking material to the bullet, distorting the weight distribution of the bullet, affecting the ballistic performance of the bullet, affecting the firing trajectory of the bullet, or affecting the ease of loading.